The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you wont be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isnt asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

I must say I am envious. I just saw the first few snowflakes of winter this morning. I plan to get my garden cleared and ready for planting when the times comes.

This is the time of year for me to break file and sharpen my hoe and other tools and start constructing some new tomato cages.

My wife and I are also considering renting a small garden plot to grow sweet corn to sell at the farmers market (or its redneck equivalent a pick up off to the side of the highway) next year as a summer project. Does anyone have any recommendation for websites or books on how to undertake this. We are looking for details like how much yield to expect per acre and such. Any recmmondentation appreciated.

I’ve got a bhut jolokia that’s about 3” tall in a giant pot sitting in the (relatively warm) 70+ degree sunshine in my driveway. When it turns cold for good i’ve got a grow light system all ready for it in my garage. Plan on starting peppers and tomatoes sometime in the week after Christmas or so this year so they’re all big and ready to go when it’s warm enough. I’ll be able to add another 30X100 area to one of my gardens as well so I’m psyched. I’m using HPS for bulk seed for a few varieties of stuff this year including mariachi peppers, zavory peppers and flavorburst peppers. All family favorites.

Totally Tomatoes for most everything else and i’m currently loading up a cart on Jungseed’s sale page. Next up is Sandhill for heirloom species of ‘c. moschata’ winter squashes and pumpkins. That particular variety is pretty good wrt squash vine borer resistance as long as you let it run and root as it wants to...smallish order from baker creek too. Mainly some short day onions and upland rice seed. RH Shumway for some milo and millet to grow for my chickens. There are some ‘winter melon’ selections from baker creek too i’m thinking of growing later in the season and storing for the chickens to have treats in the fall/winter.

Chickens have been feasting on scallop squash for the past month. I deliberately let the last bunch of them set and get that shell exterior. They’ve been sitting in buckets on my back porch out of the sun for a couple months now. Every day or two I cut 2-3 of them up (they’re about 10-12” across) and throw them in the run. The girls love the seeds and the squash too. Next day all that will be left is small hulled out shell pieces. I managed to get 8-10 from each squash plant this way, not counting the squashes we’d gotten from the plants all summr. Definitely plant more scallop squashes for this next summer late.

Enjoying my tomato powder and garlic powder. Made my own garlic powder with my dehydrator and blender. There’s just no comparison with store bought. None. Neither with fresh onion powder. Hubby got a 50lb bag of onions at SAMS last week that’s next up in the queue. Going to give a pint jar of onion powder as Christmas gifts to family. That’ll be a bunch of onions!

The best use of the tomato powder so far was in some pulled pork. Added the powder in with a pork picnic in the crock pot when I started it. Then some onion powder and some fresh mushrooms and some jalapeno powder. Shredded the pork as it cooked and used that on sandwiches. Yum doesn’t even come close. The powder takes up way less space than the tomato paste I was using.

Have a bag of USA garlic waiting to plant out this weekend to overwinter. Going to start a couple flats of onions too.

Our garden is long done except for some bunching onions and sage. We had a bumper crop of brandywine tomatoes. i’ve never seen that many brandwines before! They supposedly don’t bear much fruit per plant. I was going to take the remainder of the green ones off to wrap in newspapers but a hard freeze made them all into popsicles! AAARRRGH!! They never had a chance. At least I got some in the freezer and a number of quarts of canned before the freeze.

I’ll be putting my beds to sleep for the winter. Any suggestions of how to do that? Should I layer on straw? We layered grass clippings, mulched leaves and mulch on the tomato bed. I want to add to the rest of the raised beds as well, to get some nutrients working down into the soil.

It’s been winter here for some time, at my place, as it will be at yours. So here are some ideas of others combined with one of my own for covers for plants in late fall or early spring.

Some of us see high winds, so that’s also covered. The following is for lowering costs of tending larger covered gardens.

You’ve probably seen the greenhouse frames built with low-cost small-diameter electrical conduit—something that can be painted with latex for extra UV protection, BTW. Link those conduit hoops together (with tight loops around each one before proceeding to the next) and anchor them at the ends with barbless wire. In my area, barbless wire (no barbs) is about $60 per quarter mile roll at the ranch supply store and can be used for many seasons. Drill small holes in the conduit hoops, and use plenty of wire with small intervals between strands for a frame of greater strength. Stake down the ends if needed (at least two at about 45 degree angles from each end).

Small enough intervals to support the lower cost, thinner clear plastic sheeting for protection against early season cold. Store the plastic, when it isn’t needed. You might be able to use it another season.

And shade cloth, of course—generally much less expensive than plastic. Shade cloth over the frame described above will help to protect against high winds and hailstorms (hailstorms in mid-summer for me).

Hope that helps those of you in brutal climates like my own and others who want to extend their gardening seasons. I’d also like to see low-cost methods for covering plants from any of you willing to comment. Thanks for the gardening post and thread.

[I buy seeds from Missouri sometimes, BTW. ...heirloom seeds, because many of those are for short-season produce for climates like my own. They also help to cut seed costs. I can even keep and use seed potatoes for an extra season or two, because of the high altitude here: over 9,000 feet elev. No worries about fungi or other potato diseases.]

I have been brainstorming how to have a lean-to green house on by lower patio next to the house. We have an all brick home, and the back faces southwest. The bricks absorb a lot of heat during the day.

However, I think I would still need a little heat during cloudy or extra cold winter days, and that has me a little stumped.

17
posted on 11/09/2012 11:32:25 AM PST
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

It’s windy in TX today and yesterday. Guess it’s the front coming in which is supposed to give us a freeze on Monday. It’s supposed to last through Thanksgiving.

Update on the green beans vs. deer. The beans lost. Hubby was taking out the trash a couple nights ago and nearly ran into a big boy having supper. I don’t want to mess with putting up an electric fence but I might have to next spring. I’ve already rearranged the plans for the spring planting but I might have to rework them again to get the beans onto another fence. It’s going to mess up my watering to do that but don’t know what else to do.
Maybe hubby can pee along the fence and that’ll stop the deer? Any ideas on that?

There’s a few little green tomatoes, some greens and of course lots of those ridiculously HOTTTTTTT jalapenoes. I’m throwing out those jalapeno seeds and finding another variety. I sprayed the fall squash but it didn’t help so they’re gone along with the fall cukes.

18
posted on 11/09/2012 11:37:04 AM PST
by bgill
(We've passed the point of no return. Welcome to Al Amerika.)

We can have unheated garages stay above freezing if opened/closed judiciously and a section of it protected with plastic tarp to keep cold drafts off the tender plants. Our dryer vents into the garage. Not a great idea in the summer but in the summer I usually hang the clothes out to dry. Heat in the deep south is FREE in the summer, danged if I’m gonna pay money to make my garage even HOTTER in August. In January if I run the dryer once a day it’s usually enough, combined with the deep freezers out there, to keep the garage fairly toasty (always above 50 even if the outside temps are in the 20’s at night).

Maybe put the lean to on the outside of your house near where you’ve got a fireplace or somewhere you can vent a dryer? Maybe pave it with concrete block tiles that are darker in color to absorb more heat?

You get a good deal colder than we do though. And stay colder for longer. We’ll have a few days with the highs in the upper 30’s to lower 50’s range and lows in the high teens to upper 30’s. Followed by 2 or 3 days with highs in the upper 60’s. I kept a pepper plant in a low tunnel in my garden till january one year. Let it freeze then because the rabbits had found it and didn’t want to feed the problem animals!

There are some good sites out there that talk about green houses both heated and unheated. I’m sure there are lots of really really good ideas out there. An unheated greenhouse is on our ‘to do list’. Just not this year!

There are different kinds of chicory. My types are more properly called curly endive and escarole, and I use them for salad greens, although they can be sauteed and used in soups. A couple of years ago in early spring I bought what I thought were dandelion greens and forgot about them in the refrigerator. The bunch began sprouting roots, so I whacked off most of the green top and planted it in the garden to see if it would grow. Well, it did and it's the gift that keeps giving, so to speak. I let it flower (it was blue so a broad leaf chicory) and then go to seed. It happily reseeds in my garden and I've also thinned and transplanted it throughout the garden when I have open spots.

I am in MI and the chicory is pretty much a 3.5 season green if I mulch and use a floating row cover. Roots can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute or extender, and this might be more a case of wild chicory, I don't know. I've never done that but I do use chicory coffee which I add to my regular brew; it gives it a darker, richer flavor. People do use the root medicinally, but I have no knowledge about that.

Some find the greens bitter--my husband won't eat it--but I don't find it any more bitter than other types of mesclun lettuces. I tend toward lower carb eating and I usu. have a huge salad for lunch that includes mixed greens (chicory, swiss chard, Red Russian kale, spinach, baby lettuce...whatever is in season), some berries, a protein (chicken, pork, beef, eggs), feta or bleu-type cheese, a handful of chopped nuts or sunflower seeds, and a home made olive oil-based vinaigrette.

Hope that helps...it really is easy to grow, and it's tasty and nutritious :-)

I have only been at this for 3 years. What I am planning on is planting my beds with winter rye (supposed to help fight nematodes). In February I will intersperse with red/crimson clover to help with nitrogen.

About 1 month before planting I will “plough” this green manure under, and add some real manure compost before planting. Also will cover with dark plastic this year to help warm soil and help prevent soil-borne problems.

Hubby plans on planting winter wheat and harvesting it so that we can grind our own whole wheat flour.

Lot's of people plant rye and hairy vetch after corn and follow that with Beans/Legumes. I don't use hairy vetch anywhere that I plan to have a harvest of grain-I read somewhere that there would be difficulty with the harvest.

However, common vetch is supposed to be a good crop to grow before Tomatoes. Buckwheat helps to reduce beetles and is a good crop to plant in the middle of the season after lettuce/salad crop and early tomatoes.

21
posted on 11/09/2012 12:01:45 PM PST
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

If functionality, not beauty, is your objective, you can try a lean to hoop house, some of which you can put up/take down seasonally. Unfortunately for me, I don't think zoning would let me get away with it in my suburban location. I recall bumping into a nice blog post somewhere about a lean to that some guy built...he had all the instructions, revisions, suggestions...I've wanted to build something like it off my south-facing doorwall to trap heat and decrease cold wind blowing into the house every time I let the dog out...which seems to transpire hourly ;-0

I have successfully had a winter garden for salads the last 2 years. Next to one of my southwest patios is a concrete retaining wall. I put a raised bed next to the retaining wall.

I bought a little white wire fence on sale from Walmart for $2.00, put it around the other three sides. I anchored a double layer of floating row covers on top of the retaining wall, cover the bed, and anchor it next to the fence with logs from our firewood supply.

The concrete heats up in the daylight, and release heat at night. Sometimes I also line the sides with milk jugs full of water. I add straw and other cover as needed.

To access, I lift up the row cover on the retaining wall for access. Very cheap. Everything except the fence was on hand already, and everything was reusable. It’s sort of a cold frame type of arrangement using row cover.

Carrots, spinach, lettuce, green onions, and garlic have grown well. I also have perennials this year in another such bed Rosemary, Stevia, tarragon, and lilac so we’ll see how it goes.

24
posted on 11/09/2012 12:28:54 PM PST
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

Thanks, I didn’t know that Endive and Escarole were Chicory. We have lots of wild Chicory growing in Missouri. I am especially interested in a Chicory/coffe blend. When we visited New Orleans, I found out that I like that.

As coffee gets more expensive, I thought it would be a good stretcher, and add some additional nutrients.

26
posted on 11/09/2012 12:39:26 PM PST
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

It is much too nice of a day here in Central Missouri to be at work, but here I sit. I managed to get the garden cleanup and garlic planting both completed last weekend. No big plans for this weekend. Maybe just watch football and drink beer. LOL

Excellent Excellent Graphics! When I was stationed in Japan I had quite a few Sapporo Beers! It was a good beer. Thanks for the link! I may use it in my weekly Homebrew Post a little later at Beer Thirty!

32
posted on 11/09/2012 1:57:24 PM PST
by Red_Devil 232
(VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)

We had the same problem. I planted a pear tree and set a wire cage around it. for the Mrs, and a sinking hoofed rodent pushed the cage over and ate the leaves not 60 minutes later. I shot 1 deer that was especially damaging to our property, and will probably bag a couple more in the next couple days.

Hot jalapenos???? Tell me it isn't so :) Try keeping their roots real moist so the fruit grow larger. That should tone down the heat.

33
posted on 11/09/2012 2:05:07 PM PST
by Sarajevo
(Don't think for a minute that this excuse for a President has America's best interest in mind.)

My budget for new seeds is pretty slim this year, due to losing my job in February, so I’m really glad I splurged last winter and bought all kinds of “survival” seeds. I’ve got wheat, barley, rye,spelt, hulless oats, buckwheat, amaranth, sorghum, corn . . . and those are just the grains! My inventory filled 4 pages, with 2 columns per page.

This year I think I’m going to try and get hold of some popbeans and some flour corn. Popbeans are a special variety of chickpea that you can pop like popcorn, which probably makes it the fastest-cooking legume in the world, and as an added bonus it doesn’t need water to cook. As for the flour corn, I came across something in a book that described how you can tell with flour corn which grains have been pollinated by a flint or dent corn, because it changes the translucency of the endosperm. Since GMO corns are dent corns, this would give me a way to stay safe from Monsanto lawsuits :)

Plus, the author of that book described how corn flour from a true flour corn (unlike the corn flour in the stores, which is made from dent corn) can be milled fine enough that she even makes angel food cake out of hers! Not something I would have thought to try. My cousin has celiac, she’d love that.

Sorry, can’t say, exactly, for personal and temporary reasons. But our temperatures have gone as low as -35 F and winter wind gusts over 100 mph (109 recorded last winter during sub-zero weather). Often sustained off and on for days at 60-80 mph. Spraying ice piled up last winter to around 3 feet of depth (not snow but ice with about the weight and consistency of sand). Gardening in summer is short season and/or covered. Winds also often run high for days in summer (very dry summers).

Over the past week or so we harvested our Brussels sprouts. Seven packages went into the freezer; 5 meals so far, fixed various ways. We also gave about 5 pounds to friends. The chickens loved the leaves.

Mainly been busy “harvesting” 8 cords of firewood from decked thinnings & beetle-killed trees on the local national forest. Between this, and what we already had on-hand, we probably have enough to get us through not only this winter, but also the two following. We use our 25’ flatbed trailer, and can get 1-1/2 to 2 cords in a hard day’s cutting; one more load to go.

Speaking of sprouts, so far, neither the winter wheat not the garlic is showing any signs of sprouting.

Season opens tomorrow, so will also try to harvest a deer; already got our first turkey of the season, which opened a few weeks ago.

That is some really good looking mushrooms. I am not familiar with them. Are mushrooms easy to grow? I see those kits now and again, and think about trying it, but we have such a sunny location Hubby always snorts when I mention it.

47
posted on 11/09/2012 8:28:26 PM PST
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

These grow wild in the woods here as well as many many more varieties but these are Good Eats especially with a steak. I think our prolific gardener up in South Dakota is familiar with them as he lived in SW Oregon for a while.,,

48
posted on 11/09/2012 10:18:21 PM PST
by tubebender
(Evening news is where they begin with "Good Evening," and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.)

Yes, but not too many of those. Mostly Horse, Prince, shaggy manes (Must blanch immediately, or they turn to ink!) Fried Chicken (VERY rich!); a few Shrimp (if fresh, smell like shrimp; if not, smell like a stale ocean pool); Oyster; a few morels.

One year, the yard was covered with panther caps!!!! We nearly lost one of our Shelties to them. She didn't eat it, but stepped in a rotting one, then washed her foot. After that set of vet bills, we referred to her as The Amanita Eatah.

Up very early Tuesday morning and on the way back in, saw these "Frostroses" along the driveway and thought they were worth taking pictures. Today will be spent in the yard, working on raking leaves and cutting the grass for the last time this year since our temps will be high 60's, maybe even 70 & sunny. Gorgeous day!

50
posted on 11/10/2012 8:22:22 AM PST
by MissMagnolia
("It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains" - Patrick Henry)

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